Sorghum (Milo)

Red and white grain sorghum by test weight, tannin and damaged kernels

Sorghum trades as the corn substitute that grows where corn will not, and it is bought against the corn price it replaces. Grain sorghum (milo) has 95–97% of the feeding value of yellow corn for pigs and poultry, with a slightly harder kernel and no carotene, so a feed mill buys it at a discount to corn that tracks the two crops' availability; in China the largest single use is not feed at all but baijiu distilling, which wants a plump red sorghum with a high starch content and buys on colour and uniformity. The sheet is short: test weight 71–74 kg/hl (US No. 2 is 71 kg/hl min; Australian Sorghum 1 is 71 kg/hl); moisture 13–14% max; damaged kernels 3–5% max, of which heat-damaged 0.2–0.5%; foreign material 2–4% max; broken kernels and foreign material combined under 5–8%; and tannin, which is the number that separates feed sorghum from the bird-resistant high-tannin varieties that depress digestibility — modern Australian, US and Argentine hybrids are low-tannin or tannin-free and the contract should say so. Aflatoxin and other mycotoxins are tested on the load-port sample. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 1007 place Australia at 2.37 million MT at an average USD 280/MT and Argentina at 1.18 million MT at USD 209; the USA, historically the largest exporter to China, declared USD 521 million of sorghum exports for the year without a tonnage figure in the dataset. Australia's own 2025 destination list is almost a single line: China 2.24 million MT at USD 279/MT, 94.5% of the total, then Kenya 60,000 MT at USD 282, the Philippines 24,000 MT at USD 277 and a few hundred tonnes each into Japan, Viet Nam and the Gulf.

The buyer is a Chinese feed group or distillery buying Panamax lots against the corn import quota it does not have, a Southeast Asian or Mexican feed mill, or an East African miller and brewer in Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia for whom white sorghum is a food and a beer grain as well as a feed. White food-grade sorghum for East Africa and for gluten-free flour and popped-sorghum markets is a different specification again — white or cream kernels, 98% or better colour uniformity, and tighter damage and mould limits. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers red and white grain sorghum from Australian, US and Argentine exporters and trader positions against SGS or Intertek certification of test weight, moisture, damaged kernels, foreign material, tannin and mycotoxins at the load port, on GAFTA or the buyer's own contract terms. Parcels are structured from Handysize for East African and Gulf ports up to Supramax and Panamax for China on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, and because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), freight can be quoted alongside the cargo. Send your corn price, the discount you need, and your damage and tannin limits and we will work the origin against it.

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